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How bad would a withdrawal look?

Hi. I'm currently in this really difficult stats class at a target school. I am for sure doing the economics major, as I am already halfway done with the major. I just need to take econometrics and a few electives. I wanted to try statistics out because of significant overlap with econ. However, we had our midterm about a week ago, and I thought I flunked miserably. The midterm was absolutely unrepresentative of the homework problems we had in class. I didn't know this until the add/drop deadline, but our class seems to be comprised mainly of the real-deal "tiger children" (I'm asian by the way) and a few graduate students. This is the first class of the stats major, and there was no way around it if I wanted to double major with stats.

I wanted to know how bad a withdrawal would look on a transcript because I know that a select few banks other firms ask for an unofficial transcript.

So really, over the span of four years, if I have 1-3 W's it shouldn't be too big of an issue? So does it only become a problem if our transcript indicates an overall pattern of withdrawals? If I can have a 3.5+ with some work experience and leadership by the time I start applying to BB banks, should I be okay?
I know that Morgan Stanley requires an unofficial transcript, and they recruit at my school (but my school isn't one of their TOP priorities).

So really, over the span of four years, if I have 1-3 W's it shouldn't be too big of an issue? So does it only become a problem if our transcript indicates an overall pattern of withdrawals? If I can have a 3.5+ with some work experience and leadership by the time I start applying to BB banks, should I be okay?
I know that Morgan Stanley requires an unofficial transcript, and they recruit at my school (but my school isn't one of their TOP priorities).

MS requires different stuff in different places, dont bet on unofficial transcript

He means that you may not be required to present an unofficial transcript depending on which region you apply to, whether you attend a target program with OCR or not, and which division or role you apply to.

To answer your original question, no, you are in no real trouble at all when you undergo the verification process for a FT hire if you have two (perhaps three) W marks on your transcript. More than two might raise a flag for admission to grad school down the road, but if your GPA and GMAT or GRE are strong, it shouldn't be a problem.

Most people do things to add days to their life. I do things to add life to my days.

I went to an Ivy and worked at a BB (now in PE) and did campus recruiting for my school during my 2 year stint. If you're at a target, the only thing people look at is your resume. Despite the fact that they asked candidates for a cover letter, that was never actually sent to the recruiting team. I have friends at most of the BBs and I've NEVER heard of any target school recruiting team looking at cover letters or unofficial transcripts.

Most banks form "recruiting teams" for each target school. There's usually an MD-level guy who leads the team. The criteria that analyst-level candidates are judged by are usually largely based on the MD's whims and also by the analysts. Analysts affect OCR a lot because they're still passionate about their school, still have friends in school and still care about GPA/sports team/frat/clubs and other crap that doesn't really have anything to do with a person's ability to be an IB analyst. The recruiting team I was part of was led by a guy who was an athlete and an English major. Hence he loved athletes and liberal arts majors. It wasn't uncommon for someone with a 3.0 average (which btw, was below our official GPA cut-off) to get an interview while lots of people with 3.9 interviews got dinged.

Rather than worrying about a W, you should be worrying about whether you'll have trouble networking your way into interviews - a high GPA helps with networking.

I go to UChicago, where occasionally having 30% of the points in a class can get you an A. Like I said, I haven't gotten the midterm results back yet, but I felt like I failed afterwards. I guess I'll just wait and see. However, I don't think the curve will help because everybody in that class seems ingenious.

I know your pain, I'm currently in Organic Chemistry Lab and might have to take a withdraw and do it next year. I feel like it would be fine, I'm sure even the top banks understand that people make mistakes sometimes.

I'd like to hope that the banks who see this W will know that it was just a very tough class where even hard work (4-5 hrs daily studying) doesn't necessarily mean you'll do well.

I mean, I don't know how bad it would look. Presumably if the person looking over your transcripts is a complete and total hard ass, then it may look kind of bad (like you can't handle a heavy load/are a quitter/etc.). However, it would be better than getting a D or F I'm sure. I don't believe it would be a big deal, I really don't. Of course, don't quote me on all of this, I am only a college sophomore and am likely in the same boat as you.

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